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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

School report - but no idea how dd is doing

47 replies

SunshineYellow · 14/07/2009 11:32

I got the end of term report last week for my dd1, who is in Yr 1. It has a paragraph of text under each subject and is two pages of A4 long. However, it doesn't tell me how she is doing iykwim!
I want to know whether she is doing what she should be for her age, or is behind or ahead. However the report just says things like 'dd1 knows place value to 100' and 'dd1 reads for meaning and is on Purple level in the reading scheme'. It also describes what they did for the year 'dd1 enjoyed our trip to Highdown Farm' and 'dd1 learned about how plants grow'. It also says she has made 'good progress - but from what to what!!
I wasn't expecting grades, and don't need to know where she is in the class, but would like an idea of whether she is where she should be at the end of Yr 1. Is this strange of me? Why do you think the school don't make it clearer?

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leenasmom · 15/07/2009 14:46

butthat had happened to my neice who is in yr 2 (same as my dd) she got her report and the only A she got was for handwriting, music and art she got a b for science and c for reading writing and maths...
no one in the family made it obvious that she got c but now my brother knows what to work on in the summer break... db has a very bright 9 yr old but is very good in the way doesnt let dd feel less off herself...my dd did try to bully her but i pointed out to my dd that she cannot write on plain paper in a straight line wheres as my niece can...

OrmIrian · 15/07/2009 14:49

I suspect you'd know if there were concerns that she is below target TBH.

southernsoftie · 15/07/2009 14:59

Completely agree that reports are meaningless unless they say something that a non teacher can understand - I too know (more or less) what they have done during the year, now I would like to know if they have done it well, badly, could do better, needs to work on something, etc etc.

DS's class (Y5) did the optional sats this year but neither we nor he have been told the results - he feels he worked hard to do his best during the tests and wants to know what he got. I know I can go and ask, but feel this will make me seem too results orientated. It would have been so much better to get the information in the report together with a couple of areas to work on (and maybe some positive suggestions about how we as parents can work on those areas) rather than the 4/5 pages of computer generated statements we get now.

katiestar · 15/07/2009 15:10

OP you need to approach the teacher and ask her straight out how your DD's attainment is in relation both to nationally expected levels and averge attainment for her class.
Our reports have 5 boxes for attainment and 3 boxes for effort in each subject which they tick to show how the pupil is doing.

swanriver · 15/07/2009 15:36

I remember a Reception AND Yr 1 report where dd was referred to in glowing terms. Her twin brother's report was full of "might make better progress if" , "needs to" "has difficulty with" etc. Yet all his spelling maths, reading, writing "levels" were better than hers . Which was good in one way, because it showed they were not judging on child's abilities but on their attitudes, behaviour etc.
On the other hand it showed written reports really give no indication of where child is learning-wise in relation to the rest of the class.
I have to say I still have not the slightest clue whether my children are middle bottom or top of the range. But they seem to like their teachers and class so I suppose I just have to not worry about these "measurements".

OmicronPersei8 · 15/07/2009 15:54

SunshineYellow,I used to teach Y1, and judging by the comments you quoted from the report, your DD is doing fine/well. Place value to 100 is very good! She'll need that for Y2. As I remember it they have to be able to work with numbers up to 10 in Reception, up to 20 in Y1, up to 100 in Y2 and up to 1000 in Y3.

The reports I wrote had a tick box as well as a comment for each subject (broken down into further tick boxes for English and Maths) for above average, average and below average for the year. I always felt terrible ticking the below average boxes, but reading this thread I can see how it would be helpful to parents to know.

I guess what you need at are the expected outcomes for the year - we used to give these out at parents' evening - so you can see how your dd matches against these.

4ever21 · 15/07/2009 16:33

I also wish we sometimes knew exactly how our dc were doing. I feel teachers hold back a lot. My ds's report,I feel was a bit general and not very sincere. It was all a lot of what he can do etc, how do I know if that's what he's meant to be able to do, for instance it's no use telling me he can count to 30 if he's meant to be able to count to a hundred! I feel it'll be more helpful if we had an idea of where they are in relation to other children their age. But like someone posted, as long as the report says they're making good progress, it's enough. (but I suspect that's a general comment the teacher gives everyone anyway!)

Original poster

SunshineYellow · 15/07/2009 21:22

Thanks everyone for your comments
This school lark is a minefield!

I've not heard back from the school yet - wonder if I will?

OmicronPersei8 - thanks for sharing your experience. Your school reports seem to be just what I would like. The update is that I chatted today with one of the parents who helps out in class. She told me that dd is in top groups for everything, so I don't need to worry. That is great, obviously, but surely if she knows and the teacher knows, then why don't I???

OP posts:

mimsum · 15/07/2009 21:54

we get told whether our dc is "working towards/working at/working beyond" the expected level - we're not actually told WHAT the level is, but hey ho it's better than it used to be ...

a couple of years ago the reports were so much cut and paste that my niece's report (she's in the other class of the same year group as ds) was word for word the same as ds' in several places!

LightShinesInTheDarkness · 15/07/2009 21:58

Our DS' report was quite good.

Apart from the bit where the teacher called him by the wrong name

noideawhereIamgoing · 15/07/2009 22:05

On the flip side of the coin - we get told everything - warts and all - our reports can be unbelieveably harsh, they pick fault on the tiniest detail of our dc's school life, the stick the knife in and twist it - even the most successful kids will have their fair share of critisim - no child is perfect right? and don't we all know it - the reports leave most parents feeling very negative towards the school.

4ever21 · 16/07/2009 10:16

I'm so glad i'm not a teacher though! it really must be hard for them. I often have my ds's friend over at ours and he's a bit of a challenge - at least that's what i tell his mum when i really would like to say he's a little spoilt brat, who's destructive, rude, selfish and he needs bootcamp

I guess some parents can handle somethings and some can't, so maybe that's why teachers are just a bit careful and not totally truthful when they write reports.

having said that, it'll still be nice to have some sort of idea of what our dc are doing in relation to the level they're at.

MrsSpringsteen · 16/07/2009 10:19

hmmm i would not worry- schools are so pC nowadays its untrue - ours wont even let children win at sports day so categorising children 'against' their peers is probably a no no in your school

In ds class ( also year one) they this year graded according to effort and attainment which us a bit tbh

He was graded 1a 2c etc in maths science reading writing and effort graded 1-4 in all subjects!

katiestar · 16/07/2009 14:53

I have 4 children-the eldest is 14 and so you can tell I've seen lots of school reports.I have NEVER had anything negative on any of their reports .They are neither angels nor geniuses so basically i think reports are a load of tosh.That is why I insist on having results of optional SATS etc because , flawed though they might be, they are at least an objective measure

MrsSpringsteen · 16/07/2009 23:38

agree katie star

GrimmaTheNome · 17/07/2009 00:07

Those sort of reports are frustrating, or even % test results without knowing the range. Our DD was something of a late developer, always on a lower level of the reading scheme than her pals throughout infants ...but the reports were always positive and bland. But in retrospect I'm not sure that anything more critical would have been appropriate.

Stunned that they would make yr 5s do the optional SATs and not give them the results! My yr 5 DD did them for her maths and english exam this year (plus internal science one). We were given the results of these (she got 5s ) and also CAT test scores. These are valuable at precisely this age when thinking about secondary school choices e.g. whether do have the child do grammar school entrance exam.

kickassangel · 17/07/2009 00:36

you can look up what the national curriculum levels are though, so if the report says 'is able to .... confidently', then yo find that there is a description like that for a certain level, you can match them up.

however, at the very young age, they are likely to be 'working towards' or at level 1, so you may wish just to ignore them & be glad that they are happy in school.

i taught secondary, and by the time i was writing reports for 15/16 yr olds, there were some VERY clear indicators, like 'will be unable to pass at GCSE'

basically, bland generally = ok/average. if there were any concerns or reasons for thinking a child doing particularly well, it should be said clearly.

kickassangel · 17/07/2009 00:41

not quite what i was looking for, but it may help

CapricaSix · 17/07/2009 00:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

smee · 17/07/2009 10:17

Mrs S, the grading for effort as well as attainment seems to be a new thing coming in. I know the new academies near us have adopted it. If the child's bright, so gets A's easily, they're not allowed to coast as they'll get a C for effort, so overall they're told that's not acceptable. At the opposite end, it means the ones who struggle academically can also get good grades for effort and parents can see they're really putting the work in, so don't give them a hard time. They also make it competitive, so the class effort marks are totalled, and they get rewards as a group if they reach a set target. I still think it's too young to grade them at primary though.

CapricaSix · 17/07/2009 10:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsSpringsteen · 17/07/2009 18:00

ds also had some 2cs on his yr one report but quite how i have no idea!

his DID talk about his mature vocabulary and how he showed leadership qualities again !!

In citizenship and rs they talked a lot about him as a person which was nice

I did find the (majority) of 2's for effort disheartening though ...he is just 6..if he wants to gaze out of a window and make animals out of the clouds then that is what he should be doing imo

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